(PhysOrg.com) -- The evolutionary history of diatoms -- abundant oceanic plankton that remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year -- needs to be rewritten, according to a new Cornell ...

A pan-European study published in Science shows that mountain plants across the continent are moving to higher altitudes. This often results in raised species numbers on mountain tops, when colonizers from l ...

Anyone who has spent time in the tropics knows that the diversity of species found there is astounding and the abundance and diversity of ants, in particular, is unparalleled. Scientists have grappled for ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- New calculations reveal that the number of species on Earth is likely to be in the order of several million rather than 10's of millions. The findings, from a University of Melbourne-led study, are based ...

Furry, agile, intelligent and voracious: the raccoon is far from being a cuddly toy, which is what many people believe when they get one as a pet. It is more like an invader that escapes and is able to adapt ...

(Phys.org) —The impact an introduced species can have on Australian native animals should take into account possible long-term stress not just numbers of outright deaths, University of Sydney research has ...

There are more than 400,000 species of beetles and only two species of the tuatara, a reptile cousin of snakes and lizards that lives in New Zealand. Crocodiles and alligators, while nearly 250 million years ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- For decades, ecologists have toiled to nail down general principles explaining why some habitats have so many more plant and animal species than others. Much of this debate is focused on the idea that the ...

(Phys.org) —A new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Limnology researchers says that when it comes to managing sport fisheries, regulations aren't in line with the reality of some fishing trips.

Fish with a placenta struggle to adapt to rapid changes in the food supply. They probably evolved in a stable, food-rich environment. As ecosystems change under the influence of humans, they are experiencing greater difficulty ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- The deadly bird disease trichomonosis, which has been killing off large numbers of greenfinches and chaffinches in Britain since 2005, has spread to Europe according to a new study published ...